The excitement of commercials unveiled during the Super Bowl is becoming a distant memory. Increasingly, ads or teasers are released days in advance of the big game in hopes of extending the reach across mobile, PC and social media platforms. The buzz is already in the air by the time the ads hit the air.

Does the sneak preview strategy make sense for advertisers? Do viewers still hope to see something unexpected during TV’s biggest communal event of the year?

Darrin Duber-Smith, marketing professor at Denver’s Metropolitan State U., says “previewing ads allows for very measurable market testing so that marketers are better able to gauge which creative strategies and which actual ads are working.” The fact that everyone is compulsively checking their mobile devices, he says, makes it important to “incorporate a direct response mechanism into the ad (Twitter hashtags, Shazaam, scannable codes, and old fashioned “go to this website” calls to action.” The ads are no longer “stand-alone” activities, he notes, but part of a larger constellation.

Speaking as executive creative director for gyro ad agency, Aaron Stern said, “It’s a double edged sword. As a client, if I’m shelling out $3.8 million in one fell swoop, I want as much bang for the buck. Releasing the ad ahead of time is one way to do that. The flip side is that as a viewer, if I’ve already seen it, I’m less likely to pay attention. In the old days, people used to hush each other during the super bowl commercials. In today’s digital, view-on-demand era, there’s no reason for me to watch live because I know I can just Google it after the game.”

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.